13 things you’ll remember if you went to Hull Uni in the noughties

Hull, named the UK's City of Culture for 2017, is a great place to be a student. It's cheap, it's friendly, and it's less than an hour from the seaside! It gets a bad rap, but there's a lot more to Hull than meets the eye. See if you can remember any of these things from being a student there in the noughties (and if you can't, you probably had too many Turbochargers…)

1. Halls

There were three to choose from at Hull Uni. Did you go for posh Thwaite, sociable Lawns, or middle-of-the-road Needler? If, like me, you chose Needler, you’ll probably still have flashbacks of angry cleaners, jammed washing machines, pasta topped with crisps and some very strange people living in the Old Wing…

2. Turbochargers

No Monday night (that’s right, Monday, the best night out of the week!) was complete without guzzling a few of these in The Mission, before heading over to Waterfront (now known as Sugar Mill). A delicious mix of vodka plus your choice of VK, this was a surefire way to have a great night… or, alternatively, have an early night if you overdid it on the Turbochargers and didn’t quite make it to the club!

3. Spiders

Every student in Hull sampled this alternative club in the noughties (and they probably still do!). It was unbelievably cheap – £2 to get in, 20p for the cloakroom, and just a couple of quid for one of the tasty but lethal cocktails. Pangalactic Gargleblaster? Wiggly Worm? Green Gremlin? A night out there plus a taxi home would generally set you back no more than £20!

4. Asylum

The university students’ union club – you went there in first year fairly regularly, occasionally in second year, then pretty much never in third year when you realised it was actually a bit pants. Sticky carpets, long queues, the adjoining Johnny Mac bar that no one ever went in… Oh, but they did have the occasional celebrity guests, such as Karl Kennedy from Neighbours, and Max and OB from Hollyoaks!! And a foam party!! Hmmm…

5. Haworth Arms/Gardener’s Arms

Take your pick – you were either a Haworth person or a Gardener’s person. If you wanted a nice bottle of wine/pint outside in the beer garden, it was Gardener’s all the way… for sports and a more laid back feel, or if you’d got a Yellow Card you wanted to use, the Haworth was for you.

6. Student houses

Deciding where to live after halls wasn’t too difficult, as nearly everyone ended up living on one of the streets that linked Beverley Road to Newland Ave – Grafton Street, Lambert Street, Ash Grove… or De Grey Street, affectionately known as De ‘Stab’ Street. Who said Hull was rough?

7. St Stephen’s Shopping Centre

The opening of the St Stephen’s shopping centre was a very exciting event in 2007. A whole new set of shops where you could blow your student loan! Forget Princes Quay, St Stephen’s was the place to be.

8. The 24-hour study centre

At some point during your time at Hull Uni, you’ll have more than likely paid a visit to the 24-hour centre, where you could use the computers/lark around 24 hours a day – usually the night before an essay was due in, frantically typing anything you could think of, buzzing on coffee, before legging it through the campus to hand it in by the 10am deadline.

9. Chip spice

At the end of a great night out, you couldn’t just go home – you had to stop off at one of the many late-night takeaways (normally on Beverley Road) for your ritual portion of cheesy chips WITH CHIP SPICE! Think salt blended with paprika and other herbs and spices, heavily sprinkled onto a tray of chips topped with cheese. Only in Hull. Delicious.

10. Sleepers

When you were in second or third year, and you started to think you were really trendy and grown up, you’d go for a panini in Sleepers on Newland Ave (and it was also a great place for dates!).

11. The Deep

Even if you didn’t go here with your mates, it’s the place you took most of your family and friends who came to visit. Known as ‘the world’s only submarium’, it’s definitely worth a trip! Although, by the time you’ve been seven times with every different visitor who comes to stay with you, the novelty might have worn off…

12. Hull Fair

The best fair ever. Fact. One of the largest travelling funfairs in Europe, going to Hull Fair was an annual ritual if you went to uni in Hull. With hundreds of rides, attractions and traditional stalls, it’s a pretty memorable experience. And it’s one of the few nights out you’ll have when you’re actually surrounded by people from Hull rather than other students!

13. Hull Royal Infirmary

Everyone ended up here at some point. Either for yourself, or as moral support for one of your friends who’d drunk too much and fallen over, or just drunk too much. And there can’t be anywhere more rough/depressing/scary to be on a Friday or Saturday night than the A&E department in Hull…

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